Roger Dean is the father of William Dean. Both happened to be at Suncrest Towne Centre and saw the mulch fire.
MORGANTOWN — A mulch fire in front of First Greene Service Corp. in the Suncrest Towne Centre was quickly extinguished by bystanders and the Star City Volunteer Fire Department on Tuesday.
The fire was reported at 11:53 a.m. and Star City VFD left the scene at 12:13 p.m., according to John Thorne, duty crew officer.
The bystanders included Suncrest Towne Centre staff, instructors from the WVU Extension Fire Service and Roger Dean, an employee of J.T. Martin Fire & Safety, who was having lunch at Tazaki’s Mediterranean Café.
The instructors saw the fire and came to help. Dean provided extinguishers to the Extension Fire Service instructors, who used them, and Suncrest staff used their own extinguisher to put out the fire.
About the same time the bystanders arrived, a Star City VFD utility pickup arrived. A firefighter used a water-based fire extinguisher, Thorne said.
A fire engine arrived shortly after and put out the remaining hot spots with water, Thorne said.
He said it was “pretty awesome” to see bystanders involved because it’s not something that happens a lot.
Thorne said the cause of the fire is undetermined.
